Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you can enjoy it with the ones you love wherever you are!

Christmas quiz

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? hot cocolate
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? both?
3. Coloured lights on tree/house or white? White.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? nope
5. When do you put your decorations up? when I have time, usually around the second Advent
6. What is your favourite holiday dish? Spätzle (noodles from the South of Germany) and some kind of German meat I constantly forget the name of = what my mom always cooks on Christmas Eve
7. Favourite holiday memory as a child? In Germany an angle called "Christkind" brings all the presents and I once saw her leave. Seriously! She was flying up to heaven again. Don't laugh!
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? 5! My kindergarten classmates told me. I'm still mad at the stupid boy!
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Always and all of them!!! And I don't even feel bad about it! In Germany we open all of them Christmas Eve although there used to be so many when I was a kid that I could not open them all in the evening and I had to continue the next morning (hard work).
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? white lights and ornaments
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it and I'm sad that it won't snow this year.
12. Can you ice skate? Yes and I'll go tomorrow.
13. Do you remember your favourite gift? our poor cat which is tortured ever since
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? My family and some quiet time to relax and look back at the year.
15. What is your favourite holiday dessert? vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate in the form of stars
16. What is your favourite holiday tradition? Do I have to be honest??? Ok, my mom usually works on the morning on Christmas Eve and we decorate the tree. However, I never manage to wrap my presents early enough. So each year both me and my brother lock our doors while we wrap the presents. Our dad is under some kind of pressure and stands in front of our doors telling us to PLEASE decorate the tree constantly. Its mean/crazy/ however you want to call it, but its too funny. I should make a video this year.
17. What tops your tree? some golden ornament
18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving...if the person enjoys what he/she gets
19. Candy canes: yuck or yummy? yuck!
20. Favourite Christmas show? all the television shows that look back at the year and "Ein Herz für Kinder" (A heart for children). Its a show where they collect money and tell all the heartbreaking stories of the poor kids. I cry all the time but still like it.
21. Saddest Christmas song? Does something like this exist?
22. What is your favourite Christmas song? "Do they know it's Christmas?"

My weekend

On Friday I went home to enjoy my weekend with my family. First I tutored some kids and then came home just to relax. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I went to bed rather early and sleept almost 11 hours (I must have been tired).
On Saturday I tutored the same kids again. They are all writing tests at school this week. Then I went home to do some work for university, had lunch with my family, then got some more work done. In the evening Henny came to my hoemtown so we got to hang out together. First we had a Döner (german- turkish very delicious creation) and then went to the place (the swimming pool parking lot :) ) where we first kissed. Very romantic! We even went to Mc Donald's to eat ice- cream. Just like in the old times :)I went to bed very happy.
On Sunday I ordered some christmas gifts. I somehow ordered all of them online this year. I have almost everything but I cannot decide what I want to get Hendrik. Any tips? Then I read some txts for a term paper I have to write. Anyone has a clue about kingship in Middle English Romances? Nobody?! Ok, so this is going to be funny. Due Dec 31. Merry Christmas :)In the evening I went back to Giessen and watched a TV show about the past year. I love these shows and look forward to watching them every single year. Henny came back from work (he's a workaholic) around 10 pm and we went to bed around midnight.
Today (monday) my Grandma is turning 90. I went back home to eat cake with her and on Saturday the celebrations will continue.

Walking in the rain

I'm busy. I know, I always say that but I really am. I thought this Christmas would be more relaxed because I don't have as much university as I used to in the last years but I somehow always find things to make me busy (work). So, instead of sleeping in this morning I had a biology field trip. I put on my warm pullover and my scarf and head and then walked around in the pouring cold rain for 3 hours (last year we had lots of snow at this time of the year). Lots of fun. Ok, my best friend was with me and we always create fun so it wasn't too bad. Now, since the swimming pool closed for two weeks of intense cleaning, I'll visit the dreaded tread mill and run, then pack my stuff and go home (my parents home). The mentioned friend wants me to go to a party tonight but I'm not sure. I know I'm boring but I'm just tired. If I don't sleep much tonight I'll have to wait another week. Ok,I'll stop talking about sleep, too boring.
Chrismas activities: My mom bought me an advent calendar which consists of 24 little red candles. So, now I light one every day and think about the people I love. Nothing spectacular, but I like it. Hendrik also bought me a chocolate version and I eat lots of gingerbread so I don't miss out on the eating part (How could I?).

Summing up: Nothing new here. I didn't quit my job by the way. My friend convinced me to hang on. Sometimes it's ok and sometimes I stack all these magazines constantly promising myself that this is the last time. We'll see.

Enjoy your weekend!

Christmas time!

It's offically Chrismas time! YEAH! So I got up this morning (ok, it was rather around noon), looked at my belly, decided it was still really flat and ran into the kitchen to start the fun. I tore open the bags of Spekulatius and ginger bread and stuffed my mouth with it.....mmmmmhhhh....I love Christmas time. I love the smells, the food and sometimes even the cold weather.
I wrote blogs about what I love about summer and autumn. Now I'll write one about what I love about Christmas and winter since Christmas (at least the food part) might last until early February. I'm pretty strict about not starting before the first of advent but I don't have a rule about when to stop :)

So, here's my Why-I-Like- Christmas/Winter list:

I like...
- ginger bread and spekulatius (traditional German cookies)
- Glühwein (hot wine you drink in order not to get cold)
- stollen
- German christmas markets
- the smell of oranges
- all the beautiful candles in our house
- the decorated towns and houses
- reading in my warm bed
- walks in the snow (if it was there)
- skiing (if there was snow...)
- Christmas songs (at least some of them)
- family time
- Christmas day
- buying stuff for the people I love (to a certain degree)
- listening to the christmas story and thinking about the original reason why we get the eat, drink and enjoy all the things mentioned above
- seeing my relatives
- the smiles on the little kids faces on Christmas
- Santa Claus
- all the TV shows about what happened during the year (just a nice way to reflect on the year)
- New Year's Eve
-the fireworks on New Year's Eve

It makes me sad that this Christmas will be different. Less happy since Nico is still very much depressed. I miss the feeling of security. Usually everybody is happy on Christmas and we are proud of the things we achieved during the year together as a family. This year, we will have to force Nico to do pretty much everything. I hope I can do all this without crying and my parents will have the strength needed as well. Yet, there's still time for a Christmas miracle.

What do you like about Christmas?